Entertainment programs involving musical segments have seen a significant increase in popularity in recent years. For example, talent shows, dancing shows, and benefit concerts have become very popular. As viewers watch such programs, they are exposed to music with which they may not have been previously familiar. When a viewer is interested in a particular piece of music, the viewer may find it difficult to determine the name of the piece of music when it is not provided by the entertainment program.
Viewers may employ music identification services to find the names of songs that are presented on such programs. Specifically, when a television viewer hears a song that he or she likes, the viewer may record a portion of the song's audio by using a microphone that is part of his or her mobile phone and transmit the recording to a remote server. The remote server may generate a fingerprint for the recorded audio and compare the fingerprint against a database of fingerprints. If the fingerprint of the recording matches a fingerprint in the database, the remote server may provide the user with the name of the song.
However, if the viewer were to hear a cover version of a song that is performed live on such a program, that viewer may not be able to identify the song using the above approach. Any fingerprint that is generated for the live performance of the song may not match fingerprints for past performances of the same song because the live, cover performance may sound differently from the past performances. For example, because many audio fingerprinting techniques rely on audio recordings' precise acoustic characteristics, subtle differences in sound between different versions of the same song may cause fingerprints for the different versions to not match one another.
Accordingly, the need exists for new systems, methods, and media for identifying content.